Metro NY reporter Patrick Arden reported Monday that New York City has no record of the number of trees felled at Randall’s Island for the “controversial sports fields” run by private corporations they are pushing … Read more…

I’ve been out of town but Washington Square Park Blog will resume with new entries tomorrow. ********************************* Originally published on March 3rd, 2008. When we hear the word ‘parks,’ we think of people picnicking on … Read more…

Originally Published February 29th, 2008. Phase I of the City’s extensive planned “renovation” of Washington Square Park has gone from a projected $6 million to over $13 million. The “renovation’s” TOTAL costs — in two … Read more…

Originally published: February 28th, 2008. In 1961, Jane Jacobs released The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jane Jacobs had already made a name for herself as a community activist in the West Village. … Read more…

Originally Published February 26th, ’08. Someone referred to Washington Square Park as “magical.” It took me awhile to see that. Certainly, I’d been to Washington Square Park over the years. I’d sat and listened to … Read more…

I’m taking a blogging break while off on other adventures (but I’ll try to find a Park to evaluate if I can!). In the meantime, I’m recycling and re-posting some of the original entries from … Read more…

The excellent Indypendent newspaper, in their issue out today, has a comprehensive article by Alex Kane (who also covered Washington Square Park for the paper) on the “Union Square Boondoggle.” Read it here.

Note the Alignment! This photo illustrates the circle (in center) of where New York City intends to place the newly aligned fountain. One of the contentious issues of the “renovation” of Washington Square Park is … Read more…

This Parks Department sign – “Working to Improve Your Park: Washington Square Park” – outlines some of New York City’s redesign plan and makes its appearance in numerous places throughout the Park. People stop and … Read more…

Behind the Gates of New York City’s Reconstruction of Washington Square Park, pictured here in the North West quadrant, these two Parks signs are falling over, presumably knocked down by machines bulldozing through. The path … Read more…

Artists make up a vital part of the fabric of Union Square Park. On Friday, April 4th, they were given word that they are being evicted out of their longstanding space due to Mayor Bloomberg and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe’s plans to further privatize the Park. These plans, as outlined previously, include expanding the restaurant space in the historic Pavilion for Union Square Partnership member and restauranteur Danny Meyer, thereby reducing the amount of space for artists, the famous GreenMarket(founded by Parks Commissioner Benepe’s father, Barry) and free speech protesters in the Park for TWO years during construction. The expansion for this restaurant, largely unwelcome by the community, will also mean the destruction of 14 stately trees by our city’s Parks Commissioner.

Here is an excerpt from a notice from Robert Lederman who organizes A.R.T.I.S.T., an organization representing, and comprised of, street artists in our city:

On Friday, April 4th 2008. the Parks Department told artists working in Union Square Park that for the next two years they would no longer be allowed to set up in or around the park on Wednesdays and Saturdays due to a construction project at the North end of the park. A restaurant is being built there on behalf of a board member of the Union Sq Partnership. As a result of the construction, the entire Greenmarket will be relocated from the North and West sides of the park to the South and West sides, the exact location artists have set up in for years.

I explained (to the Parks Department) that artists have no problem with the Greenmarket and are willing to reasonably cooperate in making space for the construction project but that we also have NO intention of giving up our First Amendment rights in the park.

Some background: The Mayor deliberately under budgets the Parks Department each year. As a result, the Parks Department must somehow earn hundreds of millions of dollars each year in order to pay the bills for running the vast NYC parks system. They make up for the lack of funds by selling concessions, letting corporations rent public parks for special events and by privatizing public spaces, as is being done in USP with the new restaurant.

They also deal with this deliberate under budgeting by allowing private corporations like the Union Square Partnership, The Central Park Conservancy, the Battery Park Conservancy and the Bryant Park Conservancy to take over most, or in some cases all, of the operations in a particular park. In exchange for the funding,they are allowed to gradually transform NYC’s public parks into corporate run privatized parks, not much different than Disneyland or a private mall.

For more information or to be updated consistently, please contact Robert Lederman at artistpres -at- gmail.com.

On each side of the famous Arch at Washington Square Park stands George Washington in two distinct poses: Washington At War on the East side of the pedestal of the Arch and Washington At Peace … Read more…

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For my Activist Friends

Realize that little things lead to bigger things ... And there's a wonderful parable in the New Testament: The sower scatters seeds. Some seeds fall in the pathway and get stamped on, and they don't grow. Some fall on the rocks, and they don't grow. But some seeds fall on fallow ground, and they grow and multiply a thousandfold. Who knows where some good little thing that you've done may bring results years later that you never dreamed of.
~ Pete Seeger